It has since come out in the wash that Chris Watts was having an affair with someone he worked with, and had told his wife that he wanted to separate.

He claims that after the civil, but emotional, conversation that he’d gone downstairs and then returned to the bedroom to see his wife, on a video monitor on her nightstand, strangling one of his daughters, while the other was “sprawled” on her bed, blue, an unsealed affidavit reported.

A neighbor’s security camera showed Watts backing his truck up to the house and then pulling out a short while later.

He has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder after deliberation, two counts of first-degree murder — victim under 12/position of trust, one count of first-degree unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body, according to Colorado court records, as reported by a Denver news outlet.

Sadly, the armchair detective that decreed that Watts had a “side-piece” was right. This is the part where I get really pissed off.

Disclaimer: What follows is simply my opinion of what’s been released, thus far. Opinions are like assholes in that most of us have one, so take this with a grain of salt.

First of all, I get that spouses cheat. That doesn’t make it right, but it happens all the time. To kill your spouse and children over it, though? I can’t even come up with a justification for this, nor can any other sane person on the planet.

I know, from firsthand experience, that divorces are expensive, and if you have massive debt (remember, the couple filed for bankruptcy in 2015), attorney fees just make life harder. Do you know what else makes life harder? At best, life in prison. At worst, the death penalty. I’m pretty sure Watts’ current object of affection isn’t going to be headed to the prison any time soon for conjugal visits. Just saying.

Did Watts’ “little head” do the thinking for him or is he just insane?

Just get the damned divorce, people! Wherever your hormones lead you, it isn’t worth taking the lives of innocent people, and for shit’s sake, if you kill your kids? Don’t blame the act on your dead wife, who is unable to tell her side of the story, because you stole her life from her.

Adding insult to injury, those little girls’ bodies were found in oil tanks, where they’d been floating for three days! This is beyond screwed up.

I just have a terrible time getting my mind around crimes like this one. They are so freaking unnecessary. Taking a life because your own is endangered is one thing. Taking four because you need out? You might need Jesus, but you might also need the death penalty.

Yes, I know, innocent until proven guilty, and I would never be chosen to be a jury member at Watts’ trial, which is a good thing, as we can all see that I have definite opinions on Watts’ guilt.

So Many Questions, So Few Answers

I’m sitting here trying to wrap my mind around the fact that in Colorado a man killed his pregnant wife and 3 & 4 year old daughters.

I didn’t know about any of this until this morning, and as details continue to unfold I try to understand how a husband and father could commit such an atrocious act.

Like Scott Peterson, Christopher Watts went on the news to plead for the return of his missing family. Unlike Scott Peterson, Watts had two living children. The result, however, was the same. They both murdered their wives and unborn children, only Watts gets an additional two charges for killing his little girls.

Everyone is stunned. A local news outlet reports that one of her friends stated that she never saw anything amiss with the couple, and that as she got to know Watts, he appeared to be a loving father and husband.

Watts’ wife, Shanann, posted amazing things about Watts on her Facebook page. To browse it is heartbreaking. They went on trips together, the most recent was a vacation to San Diego, courtesy her MLM business. There are tons of pictures of them together, and from the outside, they had the perfect life.

I just don’t understand.

There are a lot of theories bouncing around online; that he did it for the insurance money because of alleged financial problems, that he had a side piece and needed to get rid of the wife and kids, etc. All of the arm chair detectives trying to put the pieces together until their fingers fall off will probably never get it right, and until Watts spills his guts (figuratively, because literally would be too much to ask, in my humble opinion, but only after some kind of explanation) we won’t know everything that went wrong until much later.

Did Watts have mental health issues? Was he cheating? Did he feel financially trapped with two children and a third on the way? Nobody but Watts knows the answer to these questions.

I suspect that within a year or two there will be an Investigation Discovery documentary on how this family’s life unraveled, culminating in Watts killing them.

All I know is that my heart breaks for all four of the victims, and can only imagine what those little girls must have been thinking as their hero, their beloved daddy, took their lives. I can only hope that they didn’t witness their mother’s murder.

My heart goes out to Shanann’s family, who live in my own state of North Carolina. I also feel terrible for Watts’ family. How must it feel to know your loved one murdered his entire family? Because I did peruse her Facebook, I assume that Watts’ father played an active role in the young family’s life.

My own grandsons are three and the idea that one of their parents could take their lives makes me literally sick to my stomach.

That poor woman. She had everything to live for, enjoyed every day that she was given, and now she’s just gone.

I don’t know how long I will live, but I can tell you that no matter how old I become? I will never, ever understand how one spouse can kill the other.

To sound like my grandparents? What this world is coming to, I don’t know, but I don’t like it.

This is Charlotte, the OG(S): Original Garden (Spider). She made her home over our pool house last summer.

To say I don’t love spiders is being understated. I have a major fear of anything with 8 legs, but writing spiders? (AKA yellow garden argiope, yellow garden orb-weaver, golden garden spider, golden orb-weaver, and the writing spider.) I may have a soft spot in my arachniphobe heart for them.

Last year, Charlotte, as we called her, took up residence right over the doorway of our pool house. Initially, I was petrified to even try to walk under her web, but unlike phlegm, I became desensitized to her presence and even became happy to see her. She was eating her weight (and then some) of house flies, stink bugs and mosquitos! I posted a blog about her on Random Musings, because I actually grew quite fond of her. (Who knew, right?) She left a couple of egg sacks for us. We figured we’d be inundated with a gazillion tiny arachnids, but we weren’t. Only six, plus multiple males, and counting.

So spring came and went this year, and in May I was transplanting some plants from a haul to a local nursery. I went to grab a spare pot, and there, in one of them, was a really tiny Charlotte. She had made her signature zig-zag web, but it was maybe the size of a quarter. Then she disappeared.

Two weeks ago, we found this right outside of our back door in the corner of our deck:

Little Charlotte

She’s positioned herself right in front of our outlet, so in order for me to light up the deck and the hammock stand, I would have to put my hand through her web, and I think we all know that’s not happening. She’s eating flies and I even found a daddy long-legs carcass at the bottom edge of her web. She really needs to relocate, but my husband said she’ll do that on her own, when the time is right.

Then there is Big Charlotte, who’s strung up her mansion in the above-right area off our porch by our front door. I know that the eats are plentiful, because she’s about doubled in size over the past week.

Big Charlotte. We leave the light on for her.

The porch lights, which we usually leave off because they attract bugs, have been on more frequently so that she can get her dinner on.

While there is still a shudder-factor when I see the girls, I’m not going to swat them down, because I know that they are not pests. (Just, please, Ladies, don’t try to take up residence inside my house, otherwise all bets may be off.)

Big Charlotte has actually found a mate (or three), who are a fraction of her size and have their webs just below hers. They’ll mate later in the season and she’ll eat them. It’s what they do. Nature, right? Then there will be another egg sack floating around that we might find, or we might not. She’s gotten a LOT bigger since the first image. Use the siding panels as a guide:

Big Charlotte and the last of her little men.

My grandson was here one weekend and went after Little Charlotte with a broom because he could reach her. Nana had to ask him not to, because that was the Original Charlotte’s baby. (It’s hard to put this into language that a three year old can comprehend, but he did remember the original Charlotte, and I showed him the shell of the egg sack and some how, he got it! He leaves her alone. Go figure!)

At any rate, while Little Charlotte is kind of too close for even my comfort, she stays, and I don’t even give as wide a berth going in and out of the back door as I might have before, but that I even let them be THISCLOSE to where I traverse? That speaks volumes for someone who almost drives off the highway because there is a spider in her car.

In the ten days since I posted the original images we’ve had some additions to our spider family.

Last week we found another large female and collection of her male harem under the eve by the driveway. She’s just Driveway Spider.

We also discovered The Twins, two females that have taken up residence against the back wall of my former studio earlier this week. I’ve tried to get a picture of them together, but both are so scared of me that when I attempt to approach them, they scatter. How’s that for a bizarre change of pace?

This morning, on my way out the door, I discovered the sixth (AKA Nikki Six) on on the far right of our front porch.

Meet Nikki Six

We are becoming overrun, it seems, but I don’t have it in me to kill them. I’m not even sure how I would go about relocating my two original door guards. With the absence of pests at both doors? I’m not sure that I’d really want to.

If someone could find a way to desensitize me in airplanes? I’d be almost totally fearless, except for that slow-death-by-cancer-thing!